Wireless Telecommunications

AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile were the biggest spenders on a pair of Federal Communications Commission auctions designed to spark investment in next-wave 5G networks. The auctions covered two swaths of wireless spectrum -- the 24 gigahertz (GHz) and 28 GHz millimeter wave bands -- frequencies once considered too extreme for cellphone service. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has made those frequencies a cornerstone of his strategy to spur 5G investments.

Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Thune (R-SD) and Ranking Member Brian Schatz (D-HI) reintroduced the Streamlining the Rapid Evolution And Modernization of Leading-edge Infrastructure Necessary to Enhance Small Cell Deployment Act or STREAMLINE Small Cell Deployment Act. The legislation updates the Communications Act to better reflect developing technology and facilitate the rapid deployment of 5G networks to meet consumer demand by setting reasonable standards for public review of infrastructure siting while recognizing the unique challenges for small municipalities.

Sens Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) led a letter to Department of Justice (DOJ) Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim on potential political interference in the T-Mobile and Sprint merger investigations. Recent reports indicate that senior White House officials may be attempting to insert their views into the Antitrust Division’s investigation into the proposed merger of T-Mobile and Sprint.

This Opensignal looks at data from Jan-March 2019, the timeframe just prior to the first 5G services launching in South Korea and the US. We examined 87 countries and compared their performance across all five of our key award metrics: 4G Availability, Video Experience, Download and Upload Speed Experience, and Latency Experience. Key Findings:

5G mania has swept the wireless industry, regulators and tech enthusiasts — but the hype may be getting ahead of the market demand for it. When 4G launched, the US wireless market still had plenty of room to grow and revenue margins were relatively high. So the telecommunication industry's promotion of 4G service was more measured and less hyped. Now the wireless market is mature and has little subscriber growth (around 1%), so telecom companies are searching for ways to bring new revenue from current subscribers.

Amid reports that the Department of Justice (DoJ) is exploring conditions that could create a fourth competitor if the proposed combination of T-Mobile and Sprint were to happen, analysts raised a number of questions around how such a deal might be accomplished.

The Department of Justice reportedly talked to representatives from Comcast and Charter recently about filling the void of the fourth major US wireless carrier that would be created if T-Mobile and Sprint are allowed to merge. Apparently, as a condition for approving T-Mobile’s $26.5 billion acquisition bid for Sprint, the DOJ wants the Number 3 & 4 wireless companies to divest wireless spectrum and enable a fourth US major wireless carrier. For their part, Comcast and Charter both have nascent mobile services through mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) agreements with Verizon.

Opensignal has benchmarked the experience smartphone users receive in every US state and the fifty largest cities immediately prior to 5G’s launch so it’s easy to see to what extent 5G offers an improvement. In the last year, the download speeds experienced by smartphone users in the US have improved little, rising from 17 megabits per second (Mbps) to 21.3 Mbps between the first quarter of 2018 and the same period in 2019. There’s lots of room for improvement but only a new technology like 5G is likely to lead to a step-change improvement in the mobile network experience. Key findings:

The Presidential Memorandum of October 25, 2018, “Developing a Sustainable Spectrum Strategy for America’s Future,” calls for the development of a National Spectrum Strategy. The development of the strategy is to be informed by three interim products, one of which is a report on emerging technologies and their expected impact on non-Federal spectrum demand, to be submitted to the President by the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) or the Director’s designee. The purpose of this paper is to assist OSTP in developing the required report.